“We were at the top of our game then,” Greg Errico, drummer of Sly & The Family Stone says of the group’s 1968 stand at New York’s infamous Fillmore East. “The band was just killing it. There were moments that made my hair stand up, where that stage lifted off like a 747 and flew.”

Sly & The Family Stone is featured in the new issue of Uncut, dated August 2015 on sale in UK shops and available to download now. The magazine covers the early days of the band, as a boxset of their epochal Fillmore East shows from 1968 is due to be released July 17. “Sly Stone reinvented pop music in his own image,” says the Family Stone’s Cynthia Robinson.

In 1968, Sly & The Family Stone visited New York to play four shows over two days at downtown’s storied Fillmore East. Epic Records taped the performances for a potential live album, but that was put on hold when “Everyday People” went to Number One the following year. Now, the entire run is scheduled come out July 17th on Legacy Recordings as Sly & The Family Stone – Live At The Fillmore East October 4th & 5th 1968.

Exclusively at Rolling Stone, you can hear one of the most memorable tracks: the October 4th late show take on “Dance To The Music.” When the band kicks in after the first scat break, they form a loose mass of funk, each instrument swirling around and bouncing off the others.

The legendary Sly & The Family Stone—in conjunction with Epic/Legacy—is dropping a four-disc set of previously unreleased live shows recorded at the Fillmore East venue in 1968. Both nights had two sets—an early show and a late show. Visit Complex.com now to hear a live version of “Music Lover” from their early Oct. 5, 1968 performance. It will be part of the collection, Sly & The Family Stone – Live At The Fillmore East October 4th & 5th 1968, set for release on July 17th and available for pre-order now.

Sly & The Family Stone’s reputation as one of the most influential bands of the 1960s has rarely been in denial. The group effortlessly combined upbeat, funky melodies with socially conscious lyrics, which would paint a vivid picture of the sociopolitical landscape of the ‘60s while also creating a road map for pop music in the decades to come. This four-disc anthology presents a lesser-known side of the band: not the dominant soul-funk-pop juggernaut of the late 1960s, but an up-and-coming ensemble whose onstage energy could not be contained.

On October 4th and 5th, 1968, shortly after the release of the band’s third album Life, Sly & The Family Stone took the stage at Bill Graham’s legendary Fillmore East in New York City. Along with the success of Dance To The Music, which was released earlier that year and spun off the Top 10 hit of the same name, Sly & The Family Stone were making a name for themselves on the concert circuit, with their dynamic, high energy live performances.

Epic Records, the group’s record company, recorded all four of these concerts (two shows per night) with plans to release a live album that would consist of selections from these performances. But the release was shelved after the release of the single “Everyday People,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969 and anticipated the band’s breakthrough year, with the acclaimed album Stand! and an increasing spotlight in the public eye culminating in an appearance at Woodstock that summer.

Sly & The Family Stone—Live At The Fillmore East October 4th & 5th 1968 features all four of these energetic shows, which mark not only the first release of these sets but the first official release primarily highlighting live material from the group. The collection will be preceded by a double-vinyl ‘best-of’ featuring highlights from all four shows compiled by “Captain” Kirk Douglas, guitarist for The Roots. This special package will be exclusively available at participating independent record retailers on Record Store Day (April 18, 2015).

“Captain” Kirk Douglas, guitarist for The Roots states, “This performance is living breathing evidence of how much of a force of nature Sly & the Family Stone were at this point of their career. Every member of the group shines in a way that I can only describe as a revelation. It was enjoyable listening to the band break free from the studio arrangements of the songs we know and love to find new interpretations. And to think they did this twice in one evening! The heaviest of rock and the funkiest of soul jumps out of the speakers combined with a message just as relevant today as the day it was recorded. This deserves to be played LOUD!”

The complete SLY & THE FAMILY STONE—LIVE AT THE FILLMORE EAST OCTOBER 4th & 5th 1968 track listing is below:

CD 3 (Recorded Live at the Fillmore East, NYC, October 5, 1968-Early Show)
1. Life
2. Color Me True
3. Won’t Be Long
4. Are You Ready
5. Dance To The Music
6. Music Lover
7. M’ Lady

CD 4 (Recorded Live at the Fillmore East, NYC, October 5, 1968-Late Show)
1. M’ Lady
2. Life
3. Are You Ready
4. Won’t Be Long
5. Color Me True
6. Dance To The Music
7. Music Lover
8. Love City
MEDLEY: 9. Turn Me Loose / I Can’t Turn You Loose
10. The Riffs

The SLY & THE FAMILY STONE—LIVE AT THE FILLMORE EAST 2LP track listing is below:

SIDE ONE: M’ Lady ; Life ; Are You Ready SIDE TWO: Won’t Be Long ; Color Me True ; We Love All (Freedom) SIDE THREE: Dance To The Music ; Music Lover SIDE FOUR: Love City ; MEDLEY: Turn Me Loose / I Can’t Turn You Loose ; The Riffs

Sly & The Family Stone’s 1969 album, Stand!, is among 25 recordings selected this year to be inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.

Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian of Congress each year selects 25 recordings that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” and at least 10 years old.

Stand! (album) — Sly & The Family Stone (1969)
This 1969 album had twin objectives — to urge people to get along despite cultural differences and to encourage people to get out of their chairs and move. The album was propelled by an impossibly smooth horn section, a funky organ and dangerous maneuverings of the guitar and bass. Its key selections — “Sing a Simple Song,” “I Want to Take You Higher,” “Stand!” and “Everyday People” — are instantly recognizable and serve as foundational statements in the music of the late 1960s and as precursors of the ’70s’ soul and funk. Before forming the group in 1967, leader and vocalist Sly Stone had been a fixture of the San Francisco music scene, playing in several bands, deejaying for radio stations KSOL and KDIA and successfully producing Bobby Freeman, The Beau Brummels and The Mojo Men. Having produced the multiracial band’s previous three albums, Stone was amply qualified for this, the group’s fourth studio effort. The resulting record remains one of the most heavily sampled records of all time and was the undisputed high point of this band’s recording legacy.

At a recent tribute concert in Oakland, Mayor Libby Schaaf officially declared January 24, 2015 as Sly & The Family Stone Day, citing the local band’s positive message. Original band members were on hand to accept the award. Watch the proclamation (presented by Undercover concert promoter Lyz Luke and KPFA’s Rickey Vincent), courtesy of KQED Arts.

In 1970, The Family Stone were at the peak of their popularity, but the maestro Sly Stone had already moved his head to a completely different space. The first evidence of Sly’s musical about-turn was revealed by the small catalog of his new label, Stone Flower: a pioneering, peculiar, minimal electro-funk sound that unfolded over just four seven-inch singles. Stone Flower’s releases were credited to their individual artists, but each had Sly’s design and musicianship stamped into the grooves–and the words “Written by Sylvester Stewart/Produced and arranged by Sly Stone” on the sticker.

Set up by Stone’s manager David Kapralik with distribution by Atlantic Records, Stone Flower was, predictably, a family affair: the first release was by Little Sister, fronted by Stone’s little sister Vaetta Stewart. It was short lived too–the imprint folded in 1971–but its influence was longer lasting. The sound Stone formulated while working on Stone Flower’s output would shape the next phase in his own career as a recording artist: it was here he began experimenting with the brand new Maestro Rhythm King drum machine. In conjunction with languid, effected organ and guitar sounds and a distinctly lo-fi soundscape, Sly’s productions for Stone Flower would inform the basis of his masterwork There’s A Riot Goin’ On.

The first 45 came in February 1970: Little Sister’s dancefloor-ready “You’re The One” hit Number 22 in the charts–the label’s highest showing. The follow-up, “Stanga,” also by Little Sister, made the wah pedal the star. The third release came from 6IX, a six-piece multi-racial rock group whose sole release, a super-slow version of The Family Stone’s “Dynamite,” featured only the lead singer and harmonica player from the group. Joe Hicks was the final Stone Flower stablemate; his pulsing, electronic “Life And Death In G&A” is one of the bleakest moments Sly Stone ever created on disc (Hicks’ prior single for Scepter, “Home Sweet Home,” the first released Stone Flower production, is also included).

This compilation of Sly’s Stone Flower era gathers each side of the five 45s plus ten previously unissued cuts from the label archives, all newly remastered from the original tapes. In these grooves you’ll find the missing link between the rocky, soulful Sly Stone of Stand! and the dark, drum machine-punctuated, overdubbed sound of There’s A Riot Going On. I’m Just Like You: Sly’s Stone Flower 1969-70 opens up the mysteries of an obscure but monumental phase in Stone’s career.